public schools receives too little attention. It is recommended that the principals
and teachers make such a civic survey as that made in Cincinnati as the method
of discovering the topics that should enter into a grammar-grade course. Not
much civics teaching should be attempted in the intermediate grades, but it
should be given in the higher grades.
- A new course of study in geography is now being put into use. The work as
laid out in the old manual and as seen in the classrooms has been forbiddingly
formal. It has mainly consisted of the teacher assigning to the pupils a certain
number of paragraphs or pages in the textbook as the next lesson, and then
questioning them next day to ascertain how much of this printed material they
have remembered and how well. The new course of study recognizes, on the
contrary, that the proper end of geographical teaching is rather to stimulate and
guide the children toward an inquiring interest as to how the world is made, and
the skies above, and the waters round about, and the conditions of nature that
limit and determine in a measure the development of mankind. To attain this
ideal will require in every school 10 times as adequate provision of geographical
reading and geographical material as is now found in the best equipped school. - Drawing and applied art have been taught in Cleveland since 1849. The object
of the teaching is to develop an understanding and appreciation of the principles
of graphic art and ability to use these principles in practical applications. Where
this work is done best, it shows, in both the elementary and high schools,
balanced understanding and complete modernness. What is needed is extension
of this best type of work to all parts of the city through specially trained
departmental teachers. - Where teaching of household arts is at its best in Cleveland, it is of a superior
character and should be extended along lines now being followed. Manual
training for boys should be extended and broadened with a view to giving the
pupils real contact with more types of industry than those represented by the
present woodwork. - Elementary science finds no place in the course of study of Cleveland. The
future citizens of Cleveland will need an understanding of electricity, heat,
expansion and contraction of gases and solids, the mechanics of machines,
distillations, common chemical reactions, and the multitude of other matters of
science met with daily in their activities. The schools should help supply this
need.